THE powerplant in the V6 Altise is the familiar 2995cc unit, which is carried over virtually unchanged from the old 660T Camry.

A quad-cam 24-valve with the cylinders banked at 90 degrees, it is now available in two slightly different configurations. The Altise and Ateva get the unchanged 141kW/279Nm unit, while the higher-spec Azura and Sportivo get a version boosted by 4kW and 5Nm courtesy of the variable muffler passed over from the Avalon sister-car.

It should be noted the quad-cam design actually uses a scissor gear, which means the exhaust cams drive the inlet cams via gears, rather than the latter working off the timing belt driven by the crankshaft.